10/18/2025
How intimate are we with God and Jesus Christ? Is our relationship close enough, and deep enough, that we don’t keep secrets, and that we can do the grossest of natural things in front of Them without embarrassment? Can we sit under a tree for hours and confess our wildest dreams or confide our darkest thoughts in Them? I encourage each of us to not limit ourselves to a polite handshake with Jesus or a formal relationship with God ... we should become more than casual acquaintances in our faith and belief in Them.
“If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
John 15:6 ESV
I have known couples who say, “I would never do that in front of my wife” or I would never tell my husband that I thought like that.” However, when I hear such things I wonder about the depth of those marriages. Although they are one flesh spiritually, they are missing out on the deep abiding trust and friendship that comes along with being husband and wife. They aren’t enjoying all the fruit intended for a couple in marriage. When a limb on a fruit tree doesn’t bear fruit it is pruned. The tree has one purpose and that is to produce... is your marriage producing all the fruit it should, or is it in danger of being pruned?
As a boy I had a friend that I did everything with. We would roam for hours in the neighborhood and surrounding woods. There was no subject that was taboo in our conversations, and if the urge struck us we would find a nearby bush and relieve ourselves without embarrassment or hesitation. Some of you might be aghast at that revelation, but what I am saying about our friendship is that it was based on complete trust and openness, spiritually, intellectually, and physically, and we were at complete ease with one another.
When I met Jesus I went years without having such a relationship. I would tell Him things of faith and only things of faith. I would pray but wouldn’t confess my sins in any great detail because they embarrassed me. I was leading two lives... one in which He existed, and another that I kept to myself. Then one day that double life collapsed. I found myself on the precipice of disaster and I had to break that wall down... I was forced to go to Him and to trust Him with the other me out of absolute necessity, and to my amazement He comforted me, and spoke with me in a way that only intimate friends can. My handshake acquaintance became one in which we embraced each other in a dear and trusted hug when we spoke… and I knew then what it was to abide in Him.
John 15:4-11 talks a great deal about abiding. I read an article regarding this word. The part I found most interesting is that the same Greek Word that is translated as abide is translated differently in other verses. It can be found as these words and thoughts... “remain, dwell, continue, tarry, endure, and it means to be present, to be held or kept, to last and not to perish, to endure, and to survive and live in a condition of waiting.” After reading this I asked myself... “how deep do I truly abide in Jesus?”
God and Jesus don’t want there to be walls between us. They have no desire for a “yours and mine” relationship. Besides, we are only fooling ourselves when we think that a God who is with us always doesn’t already know everything about our presumably secret lives. He has seen our nakedness and knows of our most disgusting sins... and yet He loves us despite them. What we need to do is break down our imagined wall and begin to abide completely in God. We need to take our faith to completeness and learn to abide in Him rather than to come to Him.
I was talking over lunch with a close Pastor friend one day. We were discussing how we didn’t have to think a great deal about what God wanted us to do in every little circumstance of our lives any longer. Our relationships with Him had reached the point that His will was coming naturally and without us always having to consciously search for it. You see, it is a lot like my childhood friend, and my wife... my relationship with God has become so close and intimate with Him that I know Him, much as He knows me. I don’t think about not committing that certain sin any longer, because it has become just as foreign to me as it is to God... are you catching my drift?
When you see an elderly couple walking together, they look so natural... their gait is similar, they anticipate the other’s moves, and when they stop to dine they know the others likes and dislikes, so they pick a restaurant from a very short list because many have been eliminated from consideration. This is what loving someone yields; it makes abiding with one another possible, and the longer you are together as friends or as husband and wife, the deeper the dwelling and being present in one another becomes. How close is your stride to that of Jesus and do you automatically know the table that will be acceptable to the both of you?
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
John !5:14-15 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for being present in my life. I thank you for allowing me to abide in you and to have a relationship with you that brings us closer together with each passing moment. Holy Father you are my God, my Father, my Advisor and counselor, but you are also my friend. I thank you Lord for the hand of friendship you extend to me, and I treasure the depth it brings to our being together and how it allows me to know you more intimately. Each day I find that there are new increases in my confidence and understanding of you; I know your will more completely, and by that, you can begin to give me a deeper knowledge of who you are. My prayers know the bounds of your will, and as I pray I am able to direct them in a manner that is pleasing to you. Even as I pray the difficult prayers Father I come to see that my desires have aligned themselves with yours. Walk with me always Jesus, and guide my stride to match that of our Father’s and yours... Dear Lord, let your table be mine, and as You wash my feet let me be comfortable in that act of love, and serve you, even as you serve me. Let there be no secrets between us and give me comfort and joy as I abide in you. Praised be your name Abba! Let my life abide in you, and please you always! Teach me Heavenly Father so that I can more perfectly reflect your image! Let my mind and heart never wander from yours, and my love for you be eternal.
Amen!
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 15:4-11 ESV
Rich Forbes